These are the military recruits who might be deported under Trump
Some young
immigrants protected by the Obama-era “Dreamer” program who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children and enlisted in the military are worried they’ll be deported, after indications from the Trump administration that they could be left without legal protection to stay in the country they signed up to fight for.
With the Pentagon imposing more stringent background checks on immigrant recruits in a program that offers a fast track to citizenship — and considering canceling it altogether — hundreds of foreign-born enlistees are finding themselves in a legal limbo. The situation is especially dire for so-called Dreamers protected by President Barack Obama’s landmark Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, which faces an uncertain future under the Trump administration. The program grants legal status to an estimated 750,000 young people who were brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents.
Harminder Saini, a 23-year-old DACA recipient who enlisted in the U.S. Army in February 2016, is among those who are encountering growing delays as they wait to be shipped to basic training. Instead, they worry they may be shipped out of the country.
“It’s really a bad situation right now…I’m nervous because I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said. “It just feels like being chained because of DACA.”
